Friday with Means - February 5th, 2010 - Epeen Epreserved

[Graftmage]

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[Mikenche]

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[agentwolve]

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[agentwolve]

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[erozc]

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[ninst]

One more question:

BS 4capping - can be anything done about it? It makes both pvpers and vp farmers leave because they cant get enough pvp/vp in short rounds. There were plenty of suggestions how to solve this: slowing down tick rate during 4cap, fast tick rate only for losing side, capping 4th point for one side makes the point uncapped etc.

[Mikenche]

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[Mikenche]

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[Means]

first!
Good to see you guys reading forum :P. thanks for yes-drop clumps
Q: How long till engine gets in test stage?

We are testing the engine all the time. Thanks for asking

It looks great. Integration is close to "done"...now onto "optimization". The nasty job of fully removing the old engine...and seeing what breaks when we do.

[Means]

will armor types also be Yes-Drop? LE weapons are becoming stale now and not many use them, however armor people still use.

Yes.

[Gatester]

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[Means]

First page

Eta on graphic update and rebalance? What should arrive first?

Any plans in introducing a SL perkline with bow for MA's?

Rebalance THEN engine.

No plans to introduce a SL perkline for Bow. It is already a part of the AI perklines.

[Mikenche]

We are testing the engine all the time. Thanks for asking

It looks great. Integration is close to "done"...now onto "optimization". The nasty job of fully removing the old engine...and seeing what breaks when we do.

Okay, how long until we get to test the new engine?

[Means]

My question:

With the shiny new rebalancing, are there any plans to update BS with new map layouts and/or game types? We need a new playground to go with the new rules

Some work has already been done on a new area...it isn't a new BS map (though we do want to make changes there). It is open all the time, will not require a queue and will give VP for participation. We are not focusing on it at the moment as we are trying to complete a few other things first. This is not going to be out as soon as we would like.

[Means]

Question: any chance, you could look up into system of selling cities? any chance city could be sold from one org to other, without demolishing everything and then rebuilding everything.
Atm, if a large org wanna change city, its getting something between impossible and a big headache to everyone

There are no plans to make this easier. As this doesn't happen very often it can't be a high priority for us at the moment.

[Gatester]

Okay, how long until we get to test the new engine?

Ah man he is just now getting to the answers let him finish ZOMG!!!

[Means]

Are you able to give a tentative timeline for the next round of information to be released on the rebalancing?

I ask because I am kind of in limbo at the moment. From the information released to date, I think I will be changing the profession of my main - not a decision to make lightly. There are quite a few things I could do for my current main, but they are generally grinding nodrop gear, and while that grind wouldn't be wasted, it will, at the minimum, be annoying to have to do it all over again. Anything you can release as to when this decision will become clearer would be appreciated.

I'm afraid I can't give an exact date at the moment. But we are hoping to get a "beta" type environment for testing the "so far" changes made which will allow us to tweak as we go based on feedback. I appreciate your feeelings but we are getting through this, and other things, as fast as we can.

[Means]

HAHAHA! You just had to say that diddn't you? For those who constantly nitpick about resources being used for anything other than the engine will appreciate this, an shut them up this week at least lol


As for LE Types becomming yes-drop... AMG much <3 Means, thank you thank you thank you!!!

For questions...

Others, including myself I bet, sure want to know about the upcomming game mechanic changes that will be effecting Aim Shot (specifically for agents if you could elaborate), also what kind of ideas are you guys currently kicking around about healing changes?

Another question I have is regarding Fixers / Adventurers. Is there any plans on adding new weapons / tweaking older weapons to better represent these professions in TL's lower than TL 7? Now that advy's are going to be made into an Aim Shot profession... Doesn't make sense being a pistol profession that they need to use shotgun (craphander) in order to use AS.

As for fixers, any chance of lowering recharge on Hawk's full auto? For pvp, running around with burst, and FA every 60+seconds seems just a little too long, maybe around the area of 30-45s would be better. Maybe have a scaling FA cycle on the Hawks depending on QL would work out best? Lower QL hawks having a quicker FA Cycle I was thinking. I dunno, just a thought.

Thanks ahead of time, not sure if this one will get answered due to ALL the questions, but just throwing it out there. Have a great weekend Means and Crew!

Healing:

This is a "tough" one. To be honest I can't even count the number of times we have changed our minds on this one. We have spoken about adding cast times to most heals...but with the "instant" nature of most casting of this kind changing this at this point would make it feel very "un-AO". We all love the game pretty much as it is...with a few complaints :P...but at this stage something like that would feel wrong. We don't want to change AO into something else. The problem perceived with a lot of healing within pvp is the general ability to chain-heal oneself infinitely...so it is more likely we are going down the path of adjusting cost of heals...it is likely that healers will have to work harder to be able to maintain their nano levels during combat. This is likely going to go down the road of individual adjustment of nanocost for individual nano forumlas...as a blanket change to nanodelta is going to hit everyone indiscriminately.

Aimshot we are really not 100% on and I don't want to throw more "maybe" aimshot info out there right now. The Fixer/Advy issues are part of this issue.

[Means]

first page...

Nice work means and crew. Look forward to the updates....

Updates???

I knew we were forgetting something...

/me yells at team..."Make stuff!"

There...much better.

[Means]

Question 1:
Is it possible to make an ingame system so people can see what nanos Agents can and can't use?

Question 2:
is it posible to get a change to the description of Remedy Inhibitor so new players will be able to read that it blocks CH, instead og having to go through the item database and figure out the stacking order, or hear it from a friend.


A couple of things I have that I would think helps turning the learning wall into a curve.

Kind Regards
-Ariensky

Thank you for making more things yes-drop, I like AO for being a more open economy than otehr MMORPGs; that you can choose what you want to do, not being forced to do everything on every toon

These sound like the kind of details we will make it to at some point.

Edit: it is likely that RI will also see some adjustment in the near future as it is a bit "one-sided" at the moment.